“I can make money from it, so why not?” This was a soundbite from a Radio 5 Live phone interview with a “Finnish webcam hacker” who claimed to have “sold” the ability to watch women as they sit in front of their laptops.
The reporter and presenters were suitably appalled at the callous and blatant admission, and everyone agreed …

COMMENTS

Page:

Laptops in the bath?

What sort of wally takes an expensive laptop into the bath with them to watch a DVD? Even if it doesn't fall in the bath, I doubt if spending time in a damp and steamy bathroom does the electronics much good. That's why I like cheap second-hand paperbacks - if they end up in the water they don't electrocute you and are cheap. Can't say the same for an e-reader or laptop.

Re: Laptops in the bath?

well actually I have done this...

BUT all webcams I know have a light on them to indicate if they are active... so if you see it on, get suspicious.. otherwise don't worry... to me its the invasion of privacy, I don't care if I am full clothed or naked!

Re: all webcams I know have a light on them to indicate if they are active..

Nope, the LED is software controlled. Now it might be that the software driver doesn't expose the two features independently but the image sensor itself is quite able to start/stop image capture without any LED being turned on/off.

Actually none of the 8 laptops in my house have an LED that activates when the web camera is turned on, either.

Re: all webcams I know have a light on them to indicate if they are active..

I quite often use my laptop in the bath. It rests on the side and I can type into it fine, although I wouldn't want to do any serious writing or coding like that. If it fell into the bath (it never has because I position it so it can't) it'll probably be knackered, but it's all backed up and I'll get a new one from my employer.

I'm pretty confident this will never happen though.

I also join conference calls from the bath, and the bog for that matter. Handy thing, the mute button. Nobody ever knows.....

As for the webcam, there's a light which comes on, and even if someone could see me, they're not going to see anything exciting. Just my face watching the screen. Potentially a little screwed up if I'm squeezing one out.

Many years ago, at an anime convention, one of the lads I'd been hanging around with proudly produced a copy of this which he'd just picked up secondhand, saving him the cost of the three individual NukuNuku videos he'd been thinking of buying. I pointed out that the woman who had been behind Crusader Video was on the other side of the room and I was sure that, if he asked nicely, she'd sign it for him.

Re: you don't want to cam your kids

I once made that observation to my sister over some rather rigid proscription she had introduced for her kids. Her response was "Yes - and that's why they not allowed to do it".

A friend had a similar attitude. Her teenage children used to "confess" to me - rather than put their father in the awkward bind of knowing the transgression. They would also say "but don't tell Mum". To which my answer was "as long as you never tell her I knew".

Re: Or in summary...

All this controversy about Google Glass

Re: All this controversy about Google Glass

It must've been quite bad actually. The amount of times cats have tried to follow me into the bathroom is unbelieavable. How many hours of footage did they have of a cat staring at somebody trying to drop a duece.

Friday

I understand that concept, even though it might be somewhat blurred for all of us (?) freelancers, contractors, outsourcees, etc.. Still, I lost the plot over the point of the text. Was there any point? Like... there's no hacking via webcam, it's an urban myth? There is webcam hacking, but it's blown out of proportions? Is the heroine (attractive, isn't she?) talking pants, innocently, or on purpose, to gain her 5 milliseconds of fame? Is is a part of a quiet government PR campaign to censor the internet (further)? Or am I looking for a point, where there's none, because it's like, Friday?

blah

integrated webcam

My company laptop has an integrated webcam and even though it has a light that shows when it's on and i'm confident i can't be spied on, i still cover the lens when i set it up at home. A healthy dose of paranoia is a good thing when you're online.

Re: integrated webcam

Yes, a bit of duct tape over the lens, and perhaps over the microphone are a cheap way of helping to secure your privacy. Another idea is to get a Raspberry Pi computer and set it up as a logging device on your internet connection. place it in the line between your internet connection and router and log all the packets, IT might be interesting to see what is really in the traffic.

Nothing to do with the article..

Re: integrated webcam

"IT might be interesting to see what is really in the traffic."

Unfortunately the amount of network traffic generated by PCs these days bears no relationship to the apparently idling UI state. Just about everything wants to phone home on a regular basis. Even with a good abstraction analysis it is hard to sort the wheat from the chaff unless you know specifically what you are expecting for a particular function.